Emma Krause was twelve years old when she set herself on fire while lighting the stove. She died after two days in hospital—“a release from terrible suffering,” said the doctors.

Gladys Krause was born exactly nine months later, having been conceived just before or—perhaps; such things are not uncommon—immediately after her sister’s death.

When Gladys was the age Emma was when she died, her oldest sister, Norma, was dating Norman Turner, a young man with what people called a weak mind. One evening, Norma told Norman about a big boy who wanted to make love to her. Norman took a butcher’s knife with him when he walked Norma home, in case he met the boy. They kept company on the back porch of Norma’s house until 11, when they started arguing. Norman ended up stabbing Norma in the chest. The knife just missed her heart, cutting an artery. Norman ran off but gave himself up at the police station later that night. He was sent to Huntingdon reformatory. Norma spent a week in hospital.

Gladys got married right after she left school. There were no children by the time she got divorced.

There is no further record of her life, other than her arrest in 1951 for being drunk. She died in 1956, after a short illness, at the age of thirty-five.

Sources: New Castle News (22 May, 1919, “Burned Child Dies Today”; 18 February 1933, “Hold Youth For Girl Stabbing”; 11 November 1939, “Deaths Of The Day”; 20 February, 1956, “Deaths Of The Day”).